Is it just me or are these weeks just flying by?! It seems that I just get one Wrap-up done when it's time for another. I feel like we have accomplished so little in these 7 weeks, yet so much!
I'll start this week with a shocker ... We didn't do any art this week. Yep, no art! We had it scheduled in, but didn't get to it this week. We had a field trip and an unexpected dentist appointment that put us a bit behind. And, our art project was going to be a more complicated one this week, so we decided to put it off to a time when we could devote to it fully. That will be in two weeks, because we will be out of the house three days next week.
What the heck did we do this week? Let me think ... oh, yeah ...
On Tuesday, the kids and I took a trip to a local missions pumpkin patch. Then on Wednesday we went to the Tulsa State Fair to Oklahoma's Largest Classroom.
On Friday, we had our monthly mom's support meeting at Co-op. Dawson provides child care for the 3rd grade and up boys. He says he is teaching P.E. He did something great this week. He gets paid a nominal amount of money, usually around $10 for the two hours we are there. The child care coordinator's son, who is getting ready to turn 13, helped Dawson on Friday. She doesn't pay him. As they were walking out, Dawson gave her son $5 of his $10 for helping him.
After the support meeting we headed to Eli's walk-a-thon at his school. This is the school's major fundraiser for the year. Eli takes it very seriously, and we wanted to be there to support him.
Individual studies went as follows ...
We combined history and science this week. Brynne has been studying nutrition to conclude her unit on The Human Body. She was studying the state of Kansas in history. Because Kansas is the leading wheat producer in the United States, we focused on wheat this week. She watched a farming video called Vrrrooommm 1: Farming for Kids and read the book Farming by Gail Gibbons.
Then she watched the video called Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat.
We sat down together and did a cereal comparison, comparing her favorite Cocoa Roos and my favorite generic bran cereal. She was very disappointed that my cereal choice is healthier than hers.
Then on Thursday, we baked some wheat bread. For some reason it didn't rise this time. I don't know what happened. But, she got to see the process anyway. And, it was just fun to get our hands in all that dough.
Our other big accomplishment this week was starting multiplication in her MEP math studies. I thought it would be impossible for her to understand. But, she picked right up on what was being taught. It was a good introduction.
All of her other subjects are moving along nicely. She still does a Grammar lesson every day, alternates days between doing a Handwriting Without Tears lesson and Copywork. And she is still reading independently every day for about 30 minutes.
We are also still getting in our Nature walks on Monday afternoons. Although we haven't been following any kind of actual study for nature like I had planned, we are getting out and walking an exploring and just spending time together.
One final cool thing that happened this week: Brynne came in from playing outside and wanted me to see something. I had been watering my flowers and there was a puddle on the driveway. It had taken shape and she said, "Look, it looks like the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior." She recited all five of them, pointing to where they would be on a map.
Dawson tagged along with us on all of our outings this week. When we were home, he was doing his daily independent work (reading, comma practice, critical thinking, typing, reading, and guitar practice.)
In history, he spent the week looking into the history of the U.S. Flag. He did some date studies, vocabulary and notebooking pages. We had plans to dive into the Star-Spangled Banner, but because of an unexpected dentist trip for him, we didn't have time to give it the attention it deserves. Rick and I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore a couple of years ago and it is a moving and cool place. I want to be able to share that experience with him, so we will do it next week.
About the dentist appointment. We went because of a sore he had on one of his gums. I was afraid it might be an abcess, but it ended up being a canker sore. However, in the process of x-raying his teeth, they found that he still has a baby tooth. The reason he has that tooth is because under it is a dime-size cyst that has trapped the permanent tooth and caused it to grow completely sideways way down in his gums. He is going to have to see an oral surgeon to have the baby tooth and cyst removed, possibly a root canal, and try to figure out what to do with the permanent tooth. They will also biopsy the cyst, but we were assured that it was probably nothing to worry about.
In science, we are still on cells. I found a couple of great experiments in a book by Janice VanCleave.
He has been using eggs, vinegar and distilled water to evaluate cellular osmosis and the effect of turgor pressure on small and large cellular membranes in hypertonic and hypotonic solutions (seriously, I can't believe I just put all of those weird words together in one sentence AND that I know what they all mean!!)
Dawson knows, too. He is learning with our new process. I handed him a diagram of a cell this week, without preparing him or without any warning. I told him I wanted him to see if he could list the parts on it. He said, "You said I wouldn't have any tests!" I told him, "It's not a test. It's an assessment." You see, he is used to being handed a study guide, probably the identical diagram with the answers to study. I wanted to see if he had learned about the parts of the cell with all of the reading and experiments we have been doing.
He has. Out of 13, he only missed 2, and that was because he just got two things in the nucleus mixed up. I was able to demonstrate to him the difference between learning something and memorizing something.
And that was our week. We are switching gears next week because of a free opportunity that has arisen. We are going to the Tulsa Geoscience Center on Wednesday. So, Brynne will be learning about fossils this week in anticipation of that visit, and Dawson will be learning about solar energy. More on that later. Then on Friday we are going to Eli's class field trip to the zoo. We just can't ever pass up a trip to the zoo.
Have a great weekend!
Check back later this evening for my Study America Saturday post.
In the meantime, see what's going on with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. We are linking up with her Weekly Wrap-up.
I'll start this week with a shocker ... We didn't do any art this week. Yep, no art! We had it scheduled in, but didn't get to it this week. We had a field trip and an unexpected dentist appointment that put us a bit behind. And, our art project was going to be a more complicated one this week, so we decided to put it off to a time when we could devote to it fully. That will be in two weeks, because we will be out of the house three days next week.
What the heck did we do this week? Let me think ... oh, yeah ...
On Tuesday, the kids and I took a trip to a local missions pumpkin patch. Then on Wednesday we went to the Tulsa State Fair to Oklahoma's Largest Classroom.
On Friday, we had our monthly mom's support meeting at Co-op. Dawson provides child care for the 3rd grade and up boys. He says he is teaching P.E. He did something great this week. He gets paid a nominal amount of money, usually around $10 for the two hours we are there. The child care coordinator's son, who is getting ready to turn 13, helped Dawson on Friday. She doesn't pay him. As they were walking out, Dawson gave her son $5 of his $10 for helping him.
After the support meeting we headed to Eli's walk-a-thon at his school. This is the school's major fundraiser for the year. Eli takes it very seriously, and we wanted to be there to support him.
Individual studies went as follows ...
Brynne ~ 2nd Grade
We combined history and science this week. Brynne has been studying nutrition to conclude her unit on The Human Body. She was studying the state of Kansas in history. Because Kansas is the leading wheat producer in the United States, we focused on wheat this week. She watched a farming video called Vrrrooommm 1: Farming for Kids and read the book Farming by Gail Gibbons.
Then she watched the video called Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat.
We sat down together and did a cereal comparison, comparing her favorite Cocoa Roos and my favorite generic bran cereal. She was very disappointed that my cereal choice is healthier than hers.
Then on Thursday, we baked some wheat bread. For some reason it didn't rise this time. I don't know what happened. But, she got to see the process anyway. And, it was just fun to get our hands in all that dough.
 |
| Using my grandma's sifter, that I used when I was a little girl at her house. |
Our other big accomplishment this week was starting multiplication in her MEP math studies. I thought it would be impossible for her to understand. But, she picked right up on what was being taught. It was a good introduction.
All of her other subjects are moving along nicely. She still does a Grammar lesson every day, alternates days between doing a Handwriting Without Tears lesson and Copywork. And she is still reading independently every day for about 30 minutes.
We are also still getting in our Nature walks on Monday afternoons. Although we haven't been following any kind of actual study for nature like I had planned, we are getting out and walking an exploring and just spending time together.
One final cool thing that happened this week: Brynne came in from playing outside and wanted me to see something. I had been watering my flowers and there was a puddle on the driveway. It had taken shape and she said, "Look, it looks like the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior." She recited all five of them, pointing to where they would be on a map.
Dawson ~ 9th Grade
Dawson tagged along with us on all of our outings this week. When we were home, he was doing his daily independent work (reading, comma practice, critical thinking, typing, reading, and guitar practice.)
In history, he spent the week looking into the history of the U.S. Flag. He did some date studies, vocabulary and notebooking pages. We had plans to dive into the Star-Spangled Banner, but because of an unexpected dentist trip for him, we didn't have time to give it the attention it deserves. Rick and I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore a couple of years ago and it is a moving and cool place. I want to be able to share that experience with him, so we will do it next week.
About the dentist appointment. We went because of a sore he had on one of his gums. I was afraid it might be an abcess, but it ended up being a canker sore. However, in the process of x-raying his teeth, they found that he still has a baby tooth. The reason he has that tooth is because under it is a dime-size cyst that has trapped the permanent tooth and caused it to grow completely sideways way down in his gums. He is going to have to see an oral surgeon to have the baby tooth and cyst removed, possibly a root canal, and try to figure out what to do with the permanent tooth. They will also biopsy the cyst, but we were assured that it was probably nothing to worry about.
In science, we are still on cells. I found a couple of great experiments in a book by Janice VanCleave.
He has been using eggs, vinegar and distilled water to evaluate cellular osmosis and the effect of turgor pressure on small and large cellular membranes in hypertonic and hypotonic solutions (seriously, I can't believe I just put all of those weird words together in one sentence AND that I know what they all mean!!)
Dawson knows, too. He is learning with our new process. I handed him a diagram of a cell this week, without preparing him or without any warning. I told him I wanted him to see if he could list the parts on it. He said, "You said I wouldn't have any tests!" I told him, "It's not a test. It's an assessment." You see, he is used to being handed a study guide, probably the identical diagram with the answers to study. I wanted to see if he had learned about the parts of the cell with all of the reading and experiments we have been doing.
He has. Out of 13, he only missed 2, and that was because he just got two things in the nucleus mixed up. I was able to demonstrate to him the difference between learning something and memorizing something.
And that was our week. We are switching gears next week because of a free opportunity that has arisen. We are going to the Tulsa Geoscience Center on Wednesday. So, Brynne will be learning about fossils this week in anticipation of that visit, and Dawson will be learning about solar energy. More on that later. Then on Friday we are going to Eli's class field trip to the zoo. We just can't ever pass up a trip to the zoo.
Have a great weekend!
Check back later this evening for my Study America Saturday post.
In the meantime, see what's going on with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. We are linking up with her Weekly Wrap-up.
That is cool about the cell! I love hearing about your weeks!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just you - the days do fly by!
ReplyDeleteYour young man is so sweet!
Looks like a great week! I need to do that cell project with my 9th grader. She was supposed to label the parts of a cell in her co-op health class and apparently blanked out...
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! How thoughtful and giving Dawson was! It's "just" $5, but the meaning and sincerity behind it was wonderful! You're not going to find many kids doing something like that! Good for him!
ReplyDeleteHe's doing some COOL experiments!
Congratulations to Eli on his walk-a-thon!
We haven't gotten to art in 2-3 weeks now, but it's one of those things that we go in spurts with. I have a feeling we'll accomplish more of the lessons in WINTER as it'll be more difficult to be outside and go on field trips then.
The time does seem to be flying by. We have finished our first nine weeks and have startedon the second one.
ReplyDeleteArt? What is that, he he he. We seem to have put that on aback burner for now. Not that I want to,just can't seem to find the time to integrate it in to our schedule.